


Forget the Butterfly

by isweartocoffee



Category: Free!
Genre: Bugs, M/M, that's about it wow there isn't really anything in this fic worth tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-07 10:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4259469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isweartocoffee/pseuds/isweartocoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are twenty four hours in a day to get your arm stuck in a vending machine and Momo chose 2 in the morning</p><p>(UNFINISHED ATM!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forget the Butterfly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiamCassidy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiamCassidy/gifts).



> your typical arm-stuck-in-a-vending-machine only NAGIMOMO  
> also i swear to god im gonna update ALL of my unfinished fics as soon as i get the fuck home actually this isnt supposed to be longer than a one shot, i just wanted to post for bragging rights B) expect this to be made longer

In all honesty, Momotarou never took much interest in luck. Things happened. Whether they were good, bad, or downright shitty, they happened and nobody could really control them. Though, in this instance, he considered luck and his superstitious roommate were at play.

_"Momo-kun, if you walk under a ladder, you'll get bad luck!"_

_"Is that so? What if I_ dance _under a ladder??"_

_"Momo-kun, you spilled some salt! Throw some over your shoulder!"_

_"Why would I do that? That's wasteful."_

If luck were real, Momo realized that it would be his own damn fault. If he weren't such a hot-head, he might've considered an alternate tactic. Banging on the glass a couple of times, or gently rocking the machine. (There was a rumor going around the death-by-vending-machine numbers were increasing.) Even a dangerous tactic would be an improvement to having his arm stuck inside.

No, he concluded, Nitori jinxed him on this. It was all Nitori's fault that his food got stuck, and then his arm.

Momo groaned and bumped his head against the contraption. Regardless of his roommate practically cursing him into this position, he was still stranded. One arm was up to the shoulder in the hatch, and the other was flailing against his pockets. He knew full and well that he'd left his phone on his bed. "It's almost 2:30 in the morning," was his reasoning. "I'm just gonna go get some pretzels and slip back."

The campus seemed dreary from this angle. The tawny lamps bathed his surroundings in a disgusting yellow haze, a couple of the newer bulbs bright enough to blind. It wasn't particularly hot, but he'd forgotten to remove his hoodie before venturing out. Something was running down his jaw, and he couldn't tell if it was his own sweat or an unsettling amount of condensation. Even the breeze was keeping to a responsible decibel. All this made his elbow itch.

"Heeeeeeeelp," he griped, hoping his voice reverberated far enough to wake someone up. "This is buuuullshiiiiiiiit." With a frustrated sigh, he knocked his head against the front panel again. Just once, in a gesture of finality. He might be stranded here after all.

Wait, what was that? Footsteps, or the glass wobbling next to his ear. He sat up straighter. "Hello? Is someone there?"

Those were definitely footsteps, and they were getting closer. Momo tried to shift up onto his knees, but that just caused his arm to twist. A gorgeous blond stranger found him plopped on his ass, one limb swallowed in the maw of a vending machine.

"What the fuck?" was the first thing his savior said.

Momo lolled his head around and groaned. "My roommate hexed me, and now I can't get my food." That must've sounded stupid, and the guy probably thought he was drunk, but he giggled nonetheless.

"You shouldn't go sticking your arm in stuff if you know you've been cursed!"

At first, all he could do was blink, but he soon returned the grin. "Yeah, yeah. Nitoricchi's crafty, though, like a stag beetle. You gotta be careful; if you don't keep an eye on him, he'll scurry away. The trick is to keep him in the range of the flashlight so he doesn't burrow-"

"Are we still talking about your roommate?" The stranger had a wicked mien, eyes bright in the dim light, and he rubbed his nose on his sleeve with a giggle.

"Uhh." Momo opened and closed his mouth a few times before he cast his eyes to the sidewalk. To make matters worse, he'd started gesticulating when he lost his train of thought, damn it. "Nevermind. Are you gonna help me out here or not?"

"I don't know, it's kind of funny to see you like this."

He huffed and threw his free arm up, embarrassment simmering behind a glare. "Oh, come on! I don't want to get caught by a TA. They already got me once for having Pyunsuke in my dorm!" Suddenly very aware of the squeezing on his bicep, he looked up and stared at his forlorn foodstuff. "I'll get you something from the vending machine! What do you want, a cinnamon bun?"

That seemed to appease the boy enough to get him to crouch down. He sniffled and jerked his head in the direction of the crisp shelf. "Can you reach the Funyuns?"

In an instant, Momo was contorting himself to try and reach the bag of imitation onion rings; they were on the same shelf as his pretzels, but behind his hand. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to knock it down without dislocating his shoulder. "Almost...!" he grunted. The clearly-amused stranger was cheering him on in the most obnoxious fashion, but evidently it was working. "I think- got it!" His index and middle fingers managed to latch to the corner of the bag. "Ha-HA." Momo looked back to his companion, wiggling his eyebrows.

His cheerleader congratulated him. "Now can you pull them down without busting the bag?"

Shit. "Of course I can," he flared. Although his fingers were starting to cramp. "Can you, like, push the swinging thing a little more open?"

"You mean the door?"

"Whatever! Just do it!"

The boy laughed at him again, actually he hadn't stopped laughing this entire time, but complied and opened the hatch just a little bit more. The pinch on Momo's arm felt worse for a brief second, but was overshadowed by sudden relief. It only took him a little more maneuvering to get the Funyuns down from the swirled claw, albeit not without some internal crisp destruction. He allowed the bag to drop to the bottom, ripped his pretzels from the spot they were hanging between claw and glass, and dropped them as well.

Momo totally thought that the guy was going to take the bags and run, but, much to his pleasant surprise, he was wrong. It wasn't so difficult pulling out when someone else was holding the door open. He flew backwards a couple of feet once his arm was completely free, and his shout of victory morphed into a whine of pain. "Ow ow ow?"

He heard a bag opening, a crunch, and a "What happened?"

"Hit my head. Shit." He rubbed the back of his skull and stood up. Sitting and crouching on the ground wasn't much of a gauge for height, so Momo was a little surprised to find that his companion was a few inches shorter. And that his nose was as rosy as his eyes. "Thanks for the help, uh..."

"Nagisa!"

"Nagisacchi." A fleeting thought of _that was too casual for a first (or only?) meeting_ flickered through his mind, but was just as quickly dismissed by the coy smile that graced his- Nagisa's face. "I'm Momotarou Mikoshiba, first year university student."

"Ohh, freshmeat? I should've guessed, a second-year would've been smart enough to bring a buddy along."

Being mocked for his lack of foresight was nothing different- his brother did it all the time- so all he did was roll his eyes and snatch his pretzels from the accursed machine. "Wait. Are you a second year? Oh, shit. Nagisa-senpai then?"

There was a flash of something in Nagisa's eyes, unbeknownst but decidedly positive. "Nah, I was never a fan of the whole senpai thing. Imagine Haru-chan or Mako-chan being Haruka-senpai or Makoto-senpai!" The amusement slowly dripped out of his eyes and was replaced by fatigue, but he kept the smile on his face and sniffled again. "Just 'Nagisa' works, Momo-chan."

Momo blinked owlishly down at his new friend. The color scheme of this boy was unsettlingly familiar, and he couldn't place where he'd seen it before.

"Momo-chan?"

 _Pink and yellow and small and cute._ His breath caught and he shouted, "ROSY MAPLE."

The outburst knocked Nagisa back a step, nearly crushing his snack even further. "What the fuck? I swear to God, you're high."

Momo ignored the comment and patted down each of his pockets. "Shit. Right. My phone is on my bed." Carding a hand through his hair, he clarified his earlier statement. "Dryocampa rubicunda, the Rosy Maple Moth. That's what you reminded me of."

Confusion remained on Nagisa's face, coupled with slight offense. "You're calling me a moth? That's kind of mean considering I just saved your ass..." He stuffed a few more crisps into his mouth.

"No, but it's a cute moth!" Perhaps Momo hadn't actually shouted that as loud as he'd thought he did, but the echo of their isolated corner made it seem that much more brazen. The air sat heavy while they stared at each other. "I didn't mean-"

"MOMO-KUN."

They both whipped their heads to the new voice joining them.

A very distressed, yet sleepy boy stumbled from around the corner. He was rubbing his eyes and reaching out to grip on Momo's arm. "That's where you are. You have a bug meeting tomorrow before classes. What are you doing out here? Come back to the room. I can't believe I- hello, Nagisa-kun- have to come get you at three o'clock in the morning. I can't take my eyes off of you even after lights-out."

Momo was spluttering about letting him go, he was eighteen years old _Momtori_ , but only succeeded in tripping as Nitori pulled him away. "Nagi-" When he turned, Nagisa was waving and smiling.

He didn't even get his number.

\-----

Beautiful Animals Club (in actuality, the club had an official name, but Momo had been calling it that for so long that he forgot) started promptly at 9:30 the next morning. He dragged a very disgruntled Pyunsuke to the club with him and started the discussion off with the importance of dung beetles in the world. One certain second-year club member (the entire reason Momo called it the Beautiful Animals Club) tried to revive his weekly argument that despite them being vital to the ecosystem, they were horrifying to look at. Pyunsuke seemed to flare up at the comment, and Momo tried to get the member to elaborate. Nature designed them to do a job, who cared what humans considered seemly. The member went on to describe bees and butterflies as the pinnacle of nature; they were both alluring and invaluable to life itself.

Momo shouted that cockroaches and dung beetles aid in the decomposition of waste.

The guy pushed his glasses up his nose and simply huffed that they could do humans a favor and stay out of the line of vision of people, until they evolved to be more pleasant.

Another member had to jump up and physically restrain Momo from choking the second-year.

\-----

Momo had enlisted the help of Nitori to pass out flyers, promoting the Bug Club. It was a very small branch of their campus' Environmental Group, as not many people thought about bugs in terms of needing a home. Only a handful of students passing by bothered to grab a flyer, and all of them promptly crumpled the paper and threw it in the garbage. The most recent student, seeming almost enthusiastic about the paper and matching Momo's vocal volume, took three steps away and dropped the perfectly good paper on the ground.

"Hey, you don't have be an asshole!"

"Momo-kun, calm down. Look, we can just pick the flyer up and give it to someone else."

"That's not the point, Nitoricchi!" Momo was fuming, crushing the corners of the papers he held. "Even if he didn't want the paper, what good does it do for the bugs by dropping it on the ground?"

Nitori sighed and retrieved the thankfully-unsoiled stationary. "It isn't like your club is in danger of being shut down due to lack of participation."

"You don't know that. The current members we have are getting bored."

A couple of students approached them. "Perhaps if you spoke about something other than fecal-decomposing insects, more people would attend." The smug lilt to this guy's voice was a hideous admonition, and Momo recognized it instantly.

"Maybe if you learned the purpose of more than just fucking butterflies, we could have an intelligent discussion, Rei-kun."

The taller boy pushed his glasses higher on his face. "It's Rei- _senpai_ to you, troglodyte."

"Rei-chan don't be mean!" The shorter of the two visitors made himself visible. He had a tight grip on Rei's arm, although Rei didn't appear thrilled with that fact, and a much-less weary visage in the daylight. "Nice to see you again, Ai-chan, Momo-chan!"

"Nagisacchi. I, uh, yeah!" Momo grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, nice to see you too, not at the ass-crack of morning."

Nagisa hid a giggle behind his oversized jacket sleeve, while Rei crinkled his nose. "I was mistaken to believe you were only this repulsive when discussing arthropods. You're just as such in casual settings, Momotarou-kun."

Nitori grabbed Momo's wrist to keep him from smacking Rei across the face, and stepped in front to defuse the tension. "Can we help you with anything, Rei-kun?"

"Nagisa-kun just wanted to greet this oaf, for some unbeknownst reason."

Thankfully, Nagisa wasn't taking any of Rei's attitude, and smacked his shoulder. "If you were just going to be rude, you shouldn't have followed me over here! ("You literally pulled-") _Irrelevant_! So Momo-chan!" Nagisa turned and bounced on his toes delicately. "You're in the Bug Club? Rei's been trying to get me to go for the longest time. Can I have a paper?"

Momo was quick to pull a sheet and hand it over to his newfound friend. "It's, uh, for our club. We meet on Mondays at 5 pm and Thursdays at 9 am. There's an upcoming convention where..." He watched as Nagisa scribbled something and handed the sheet back.

"How about you just text me all that stuff instead? That way I won't forget!"

**Author's Note:**

> check it out. it doesn't matter if this sucks. it doesn't matter if this is the worst fic on this website, or the most cliched prompt. know why? because this was the very first nagimomo posted on ao3 aww yeahhh  
> grab your criticisms and throw them at my face


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